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The Senate on 6 June approved a bill authorising ratification of the Grand Inga Treaty with South Africa. The treaty, signed in Kinshasa on 29 October by presidents Joseph Kabila and Jacob Zuma, confirmed the commitment of both countries to set up the necessary structures for the implementation of the Grand Inga project. While highlighting the regional and integrating nature of the project, its 21 articles recognise DRC’s ownership and sovereignty over the Inga site, as well as the country’s leadership role in the development of Inga through the Agence pour le Développement et la Promotion d’Inga, to be established later this year.

DR Congo | South Africa
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London-based Soco International has agreed not to drill in the Virunga National Park without the approval of the government and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco), which oversees the park’s World Heritage status. Soco said on 11 June it would complete its current seismic acquisition campaign within 30 days. “The company commits not to undertake or commission any exploratory or other drilling within Virunga National Park unless Unesco and the DRC government agree that such activities are not incompatible with its World Heritage status,” it said in a statement.

DR Congo
Issue 280 - 28 June 2014

Inga III consultancy tenders

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As part of the Projet d’Appui au Développement Site d’Inga et de l’Accès à l’Electricité, which is financed by the African Development Bank and forms part of the Inga III project, documents for several consultancy tenders are expected to be released next month, with requests for proposals expected in September at the earliest. Services are being sought from international financial advisers and monitoring and evaluation specialists to oversee the administrative and financial management of the project. Contact: Bernard Diayele, Coordonnateur du project. Tel: +243 84 4687751. Email: [email protected]. Julien Sango Motha, Expert aux acquisitions. Tel: +243 81 5846386. Email: [email protected].

DR Congo
Free

The optimism that prevailed ten years ago about jatropha curcas as a biodiesel crop has evaporated in the face of market realities. One of the latest victims, Belgian biotech firm Quinvita, closed in January, with Filip Lesaffer of Quinvita shareholders Think2act telling the Belgian economic daily De Tijd that the company had lost too much money and the pipeline of projects had completely dried up. Studies funded by Belgian development aid and carried out by researchers from Gembloux Agro-Bio Tech, part of the University of Liège, in collaboration with local farmers in the Dialocoto area of Senegal, concluded that planting jatropha as a monoculture and using external labour on large areas was not a profitable model.

DR Congo | Senegal
Issue 279 - 17 June 2014

DR Congo: Lake Kivu methane tender

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The Ministry of Hydrocarbons is seeking expressions of interest from companies for the development of a public-private partnership to exploit Lake Kivu’s methane. The gas dissolved in the lake is at risk of explosion, and several projects are at various stages of development on the Rwandan side of the border. The ministry asked companies that have already expressed interest in a methane project to confirm their interest by taking part in the tender, and listed 19 of them. According to the tender notice, the partnership will be expected to mobilise the necessary funds for the project, carry out studies, and build, own and operate the project for a period of 15 years, renewable for five years.

DR Congo
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The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has decided to contest the proposed maritime border contained in Angola’s submission to the UN Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf. The submission, delivered on 6 December, gives DRC no access to the high seas. It recognises only a small triangle of sea as DRC territory and ignores any Congolese right to an exclusive economic zone (EEZ) or access to the continental shelf beyond the previous 200-mile limit (AE 264/17). In a letter to UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon on 11 April, the DRC foreign ministry said Angola’s border claim had been drawn “unilaterally” without regard for DRC’s rights to its maritime territory.

DR Congo
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Israeli mining magnate Dan Gertler’s Fleurette Group has teamed up with Brazilian construction group Andrade Gutierrez to develop power, road and rail infrastructure in Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Gertler already has substantial investments in DRC, covering oil blocks 1 and 2, as well as extensive copper mining interests across Katanga Province. While Andrade Gutierrez has widespread experience across Africa, with a presence in Angola, Algeria, Republic of Congo and Guinea, the JV represents the company’s first foray into DRC.

DR Congo
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London-based Soco International has begun a 2D marine seismic survey over Lake Edward on Block V in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Acquisition began on 26 April, using an environmentally sensitive technique of placing seismic recorders on the lake bed. The lake forms part of Block V, which also includes an area of the Virunga National Park, whose director Emmanuel de Mérode was shot and injured on 15 April after delivering a report on alleged violations of park rules by Soco to the prosecutor’s office in Goma.

DR Congo
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State utility Société Nationale d’Electricité (Snel) aims to improve its dire financial situation by increasing the number of prepaid meters. An initial scheme in 1990 failed because Snel acquired 6,000 meters but no management system, and then staff who had been trained to install and check them left the company. Another project was launched in 2011, with the installation of 8,000 meters, including 6,000 in Kinshasa in the Cité Verte and Cité Maman Mobutu neighbourhoods, and 2,000 in Lubumbashi in the Golf and Carrefour districts. These mostly worked well, although some army officers and high-ranking officials refused to accept their installation. While technically the system works, tariffs are too low to be cost reflective, and fraud remains a significant problem.

DR Congo
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Despite pressure on donors from renewed opposition to big dam projects, the World Bank board on 20 March approved a $73.1m technical assistance grant for the Inga III Basse Chute project. The bank said the grant for the Inga III Basse Chute and Mid-Size Hydropower Development Technical Assistance Project would finance a series of environmental, institutional, social and technical studies to guide sustainable development of Inga III and selected mid-size hydropower projects. The bank said the project would create national institutions such as the Inga development agency to pilot site development and award concessions on a competitive basis.

DR Congo
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With the World Bank and African Development Bank (AfDB) lining up behind a public/private partnership structure, it seemed possible that the elusive Inga dam development – now promoted by the African Union as a cornerstone of its initiative to overcome sub-Saharan Africa’s gaping electricity supply deficit – might finally happen. Concerted opposition to big-ticket hydroelectric power schemes led by International Rivers and other advocacy groups seemed to have been overcome, as reflected in ambitious plans for the 4,800MW Inga III. But in recent months that opposition has re-emerged as a potent force, again putting Inga III into question.

DR Congo
Issue 270 - 30 January 2014

DR Congo postpones debate on oil law

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National Assembly chairman Aubin Minaku on 22 January ordered the suspension of debate on Democratic Republic of Congo’s new oil law, which was approved by the Senate last year. There is still a long way to go, as only 20 articles have been discussed and approved, of a total 127. According to the United Nations-sponsored Radio Okapi, the debate should resume at the next session of the National Assembly, which will start on 15 March and last three months.

DR Congo
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The question of how large Inga III should be has been raised by consultants retained to comment on the African Development Bank (AfDB)-financed study by EDF International and Aecom Technology Corporation’s Canada-based subsidiary Groupe RSW (AE 263/4). Democratic Republic of Congo and South Africa have signed a preliminary agreement for Eskom to take 2.5GW from Inga III, with the rest to go to mining firms and local consumers, in the first of six phases of the 39GW-44GW Grand Inga project (AE 266/1, 265/9, 255/1).

DR Congo
Subscriber

With its energy loan book already at record levels, the African Development Bank has granted $68m for the Inga Site Development and Electricity Access Support Project. This aims to bring the 4,800MW Inga 3 project to bankability with professional services, capacity building to allow for coherent decisions about developers, and creation of a good environment for public/private partnerships. The bank has identified shortfalls in project preparation as a key challenge to completing privately financed infrastructure schemes, even in states less fragile than Democratic Republic of Congo.

DR Congo
Issue 265 - 08 November 2013

DR Congo: Ministers sign Inga treaty

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South Africa and Democratic Republic of Congo signed a treaty on the Inga hydropower Project on 29 October during a visit to Kinshasa by President Jacob Zuma. The treaty, signed by South African energy minister Dikobe Ben Martins and his DRC counterpart Bruno Kapandji Kalala, paves the way for a future power purchase agreement (PPA). According to the Kinshasa daily Le Potentiel, the agreement commits South Africa to buying 2,500MW from the 4,800MW Inga III development and gives Pretoria ten years to conclude a formal PPA. Mining companies in Katanga will take 1,300MW, while the other 1,000MW will be supplied elsewhere within Congo.

DR Congo | South Africa